


An Unexpected Journey

by Itmakesyoulooklikealoser



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: M/M, Uber Driver Adam, pynch - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2017-11-02
Packaged: 2018-12-11 08:39:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11710800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Itmakesyoulooklikealoser/pseuds/Itmakesyoulooklikealoser
Summary: Pynch Week 2017 Day 7: Road TripRonan's car is in the shop and he needs to make a trip to the Barns. He orders an Uber and is surprised when the driver arrives in a piece of crap car.





	1. A Left Will Take You to the Interstate

**Author's Note:**

> Pynch Week 2017 Day 7: Road Trip
> 
> Again, wasn't planning on a chaptered fic, but alas, here we are. So technically the road trip doesn't happen in this chapter...but they do drive somewhere together...
> 
> Unedited, so any mistakes are mine. Chapter title from Good Directions by Billy Currington
> 
> I have never used an Uber so I have no idea how they actually work. I relied heavily on google and @ronanlynchamiright's help there. So if something is inaccurate that's my bad, let's just pretend that's how it actually works.
> 
> All comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! Thanks! Find me on Tumblr @itmakesmelooklikealoser

“Who the fuck are you?” Ronan snarled at the dusty haired boy getting out of the car.

“I’m your Uber drive, Adam.” the boy gave Ronan a questioning look, “You did call an Uber didn’t you? Are you Ronan?”

Ronan looked past Adam to the car behind him.

“I’m not getting in that piece of shit.” Ronan gave the car, if you could call it that, a disgusted look.

“Seriously? I drove all the way here to pick you up. It’s not my fault you didn’t read the confirmation where it showed what type of car I drive. You could have canceled. It’s too late now. Get in.” Adam turned to walk to the driver’s side of his mutt of a car, conversation apparently over.

Ronan stared after Adam, silently admiring his courage to talk to him the way he did. Most people took one look at Ronan, a danger sign in human form, and shied away from confrontation. Ronan liked that Adam didn’t. He liked the fight he saw in the boy. This was going to be an interesting ride.

The only reason Ronan needed an Uber was because his transmission had blown and it was currently being replaced. Which meant Ronan had no car for a few days and he needed to get to the Barns to check on his mom. Gansey wouldn't let him borrow the Pig and there was no way he was going to ask Declan to drive him, so here he was, getting into the passanger’s seat of an oddly attractive stranger’s piece of shit car. He quickly prayed that they wouldn’t break down on the way there. 

Adam asked where he was headed and Ronan told him the address. Adam pulled out an ancient Tom Tom and attached it to the window and entered the address. The robotic voice filled the car with directions.

Ronan sat in awkward silence the first few minutes of the drive. Normally he didn't mind not having to participate in small talk, but the silence was deafening. The only noise was the sound of the car engine struggling to keep up and the cars passing by. Ronan reached towards the radio and was surprised to find that nothing happened when he turned the dial.

“Shit. Are you fucking serious? You radio doesn’t work?”

Adam glanced at the radio as he answered in a cool tone, “No, but the tape deck works if you want to turn that on.”

Ronan stared at Adam in disbelief. Did they even make cassette tapes anymore? Where had this kid come from? 

“I thought Uber drivers were supposed to have nice, functional cars. That’s how you get good ratings and assignments, isn’t it?” Ronan wasn’t very familiar with the ins and outs of Ubers, but he was pretty certain that getting a good rating was a big deal and he just didn’t understand how Adam could possibly have gotten good ratings with this car.

Ronan could see Adam roll his eyes before he answered. 

“Look. I know my car isn't the greatest, but I give good customer service. I arrive on time, I drive safe, and I’m polite. Some people don’t care what the car looks like as long as the drive is pleasant.” 

“Polite?” Rona scoffed, “If that was you being polite, I’d hate to see you when you are impolite.”

“Okay, let me rephrase that. I’m polite when the customer isn't a complete asshole from the get-go.” 

Ronan barked out a laugh and turned the tape deck on. Country music filled the car. Ronan grimaced and turned the music back off. 

“The fuck kind of music is that?” 

“There are other cassettes in the glovebox,” Adam huffed, “or we can just sit in silence. I wouldn't mind.”

Ronan opened the glovebox and pulled out the two other tapes to examine them. Each tape had been hastily scrawled on in near unreadable script. The first tape was labeled classical and the other pop. Ronan threw them back into the glovebox and groaned. 

“You have terrible taste in music.” Ronan pointed out to Adam. 

“That is not my taste in music. That is the general public’s taste in music. I don't listen to music so I don't have a “taste” in music.” Adam answered plainly. 

“Wait, are you being serious? You don’t listen to music?” Ronan was appalled. He loved his music, it had helped him through some rough times. He didn’t know what he would do if he didn't have his music.

“Yes I’m being serious. I don’t have the time or money it requires to listen to music.”

“Money? They make apps where you can listen to music for free, man.”

“Well, that would require to have a phone that can support those apps, which costs money. My phone barely have enough storage space for the Uber app.”

The rest of the ride to the Barns passed in similar conversation. Ronan would make a rude comment and Adam would come back with either an extremely placid response or would sass him. Ronan preferred when Adam pushed back, so he made it his mission to rile Adam up as much as he could without getting kicked out of the car.

When they arrived at the Barns Ronan asked Adam if he could wait outside for him. He only needed a few minutes to check on his mom. It’s not like he actually had to do anything for her, he just felt better if he checked on her regularly. Adam had reluctantly agreed with a heavy sigh of annoyance. 

Ronan made his way back to the car once he had checked on his mom and saw that nothing had changed. When he arrived at the car Adam wasn’t in the driver’s seat. Ronan looked around wildly, trying to find his missing Uber driver. There were a lot of things at the Barns that weren’t easily explained away. 

Ronan turned in a wide circle trying to spot Adam’s dusty hair. He walked around the side of the house and let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding when he saw Adam standing under a weeping willow tree. Adam had his head tilted back, staring up through the branches of the tree. The sunlight was streaming through the branches in broken streams, wrapping Adam in a surreal glow. 

Ronan was entranced by how calm and at peace Adam looked standing beneath the tree, like he belonged there. Ronan could feel his heart speed up at that thought. He tried to will it to slow, tried to push the thought from his mind before it fully formed, but he was too late. 

Adam dropped his head back down and turned towards Ronan, a peaceful smile on his face. When his eyes met Ronan’s they widened in surprise.

“Shit, I’m sorry! I thought you'd be longer.” Adam rushed to explain.

It took a minute for Ronan to gather his thoughts. His mind was still stuck on how beautiful Adam had looked moments before.

“I fucking told you I’d only be a minute. I didn't say you could go on a fucking adventure across my property.”

Ronan cursed himself at how harsh he had been. He hadn’t meant to be, it was a reflex. Whenever he started to feel any emotion he couldn’t handle, he immediately shut down and reverted to anger. He wasn’t necessarily angry at Adam, just at how Adam was making him feel. He hated not having control over his feelings, and suddenly he felt his emotions towards Adam overflowing chaotically. 

Ronan had always been all or nothing with his emotions, and how he resented it now. Something that should have been a simple crush, merely physical attraction, exploded and spread like wildfire through Ronan. Ronan turned abruptly, not allowing himself to see the hurt flash across Adam’s face, and stopped off towards the car, not checking to see if Adam was following.

The drive back to Monmouth was tense. Adam kept glancing over at Ronan and opening his mouth like he wanted to say something, but decided against it and snapped it shut. Ronan did his best to keep his attention on the scenery flying by outside the passenger side window, but kept catching himself turning towards Adam. 

When they parked at Monmouth neither moved. Adam sat fiddling with the steering wheel and Ronan was staring through the front windshield. 

“I’m sorry for…” they both started at the same time. They turned to look at each other, both telling the other to go first. 

Adam took a deep breath and tried again.

“I’m sorry for wondering through your property. You were right, I shouldn’t have gotten out to explore. I honestly don’t know why I did. I just felt pulled towards the tree, it was strange.” Adam had adverted his eyes and was rubbing the back of his neck.

Ronan’s immediate reaction was to make a smart ass comment, but stopped himself, remind himself he wasn’t actually mad at Adam. He did his smoker’s breath before he answered.

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong. I overreacted. I wasn’t actually mad at you.” Ronan cringed slightly, hoping Adam didn’t ask what he was actually mad at. He didn’t lie and if asked he would be forced to evade or answer honestly. 

Adam visibly relaxed, shoulder’s slumping forward. 

“So you’re not gonna give me a terrible rating?” Adam asked, looking slightly embarrassed.

Ronan was glad that Adam wasn’t focusing on the why he was mad, but felt a little offended that that’s what Adam was worried about.

“No, loser. I’ll give you a good review so long as you promise not to force people to listen to your shitty music anymore.” Ronan tried to lighten to mood a little. 

Adam smiled and let out a huff of laughter. “Deal. Now get out of my car.”

Ronan watched as Adam drove away. He felt a smile tugging at his lips. He pulled out his phone and logged into his Uber account. The bill for Adam’s Uber was there, he tapped it and added a tip and hit submit. He gave Adam a five-star overall rating. Ronan chuckled when he saw the option to give Adam a badge. He selected the “Awesome Music” and “Cool Car” badge and assigned them, he figured Adam would get a good laugh out of that. Just as he was about to log out of his account a notification popped up. He clicked on it and was shocked to see that Adam had rated him as a passenger. When he saw the rating his heart stopped. Adam had rated him 5 stars.


	2. But a Right Will Bring You Right Back Here to Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ronan's car is fixed and he needs to blow off some steam.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I know it's been a while. Sorry! But here is a short chapter. I know it's not enough to make up for the long gap, but I promise updates will come quicker now.
> 
> No Adam in this one :( Sorry. He will be in the next chapter though I promise! 
> 
> Let me know your thoughts in the comments or on Tumblr @itmakesyoulooklikealoser
> 
> unedited

Ronan’s car was fixed and back to him two days later. He was thrilled to have his car back which equated to freedom in his mind. Upon picking up his car he immediately wanted to find someone to race as celebration, and he knew just the person.

He pulled out his phone to text Kavinsky and his gaze caught on the Uber app he still had downloaded. He had been tempted the past couple of days to order another Uber and hope he got Adam, but couldn’t bring himself to be so pathetic. Now that he had his car back, he didn’t really have a reason to keep the app on his phone. His finger hovered above the ‘x’ to delete the app, trying to convince himself to just delete it already. After a few more seconds, he threw his phone into the backseat of the car, Uber app still downloaded, and sped off to find a race.

********************

Ronan was back at Monmouth too soon. He had driven around town to the known hangouts of Kavinsky and the other street racers but no one was to be found. He had even stopped to text Kavinsky, expecting a quick response, but none had come. Where the hell was the fucker when he actually wanted him? Any other time he would be pestering Ronan when he had no desire to race, of course he would disappear when Ronan needed to blow off some steam.

Originally, Ronan had gone out in search of a race to celebrate having his car back, but the longer he spent searching for one, the longer his brain kept nagging him about Adam and the undeleted Uber app on his phone. The longer his brain kept nagging him about Adam, the more irritated and restless Ronan had become, and now he had no way to rid that restless energy. 

Ronan paced hiss room, slamming open the window for Chainsaw to go out so hard the glass rattled. He picked up dream things, examined them, and then threw them out the window just to watch them shatter on the cracked pavement below. After a few minutes of this, Ronan grew bored again. It wasn’t any fun by himself. He briefly wondered where Noah was, Noah was a big fan of this particular activity. 

Ronan stomped over to his bed and threw himself unceremoniously across it. He laid with his eyes shut, taking deep smoker breaths, trying to rid himself of some of the irritation and restlessness rattling around inside him. It did not help.

A buzzing noise came from the nightstand and Ronan glared at it. It kept buzzing, buzzing, buzzing until Ronan got irritated and viciously grabbed his phone that was on top. 

Of fucking course it was Kavinsky responding to Ronan’s text on his own time, instead of when Ronan needed him. Ronan texted Kavinsky back a lewd emoji. As he was preparing to throw his phone into the corner of his room he caught a glimpse of the Uber app again. He really should delete the stupid thing, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so. Before he knew what he was doing he had opened the app and ordered an Uber.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Every time Adam’s Phone buzzed with a job from Uber his heart beat sped up traitorously in his chest. He always held his phone and closed his eyes to calm himself before checking the notification.
> 
> Ronan’s heart was beating wildly in his chest. He closed the app quickly, not wanting to see if Adam was going to be his Uber driver.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Here is another chapter! It's a little shorter than I wanted, but the next update will make up for it I promise! We will be getting to the good stuff next! 
> 
> I originally only planned for this to be 2 chapters (whoops) and had picked out the chapter titles accordingly, so now I am out of chapter titles. So they will now be bland and lame chapter numbers.
> 
> I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think in the comments or on Tumblr @itmakesyoulooklikealoser
> 
> Thanks for all the love on the previous chapters! It means a lot!

Every time Adam’s Phone buzzed with a job from Uber his heart beat sped up traitorously in his chest. He always held his phone and closed his eyes to calm himself before checking the notification. Every time he saw it wasn’t Ronan’s name on the screen his heart hurt. He didn’t understand what was happening to him. He had only known the other boy for a couple of hours. Why was he acting like this? He needed to forget about Ronan. But how could he when every time he opened his wallet a crisp $100 bill peaked out at him. 

When Adam had returned home from his job with Ronan he had checked his bank account and found the deposit in his account disturbing. Surely there had been some mistake. He called the Uber customer service line and told them that much. They had informed him that no, there was no mistake, in fact, the person who gave the $100 tip called to confirm that it was not a mistake in case the company tried to put a hold on it before depositing in his account. Adam drove immediately to the bank and pulled $100 from his account and put it in his wallet. If he ever saw Ronan again he was giving it back. 

Adam grabbed his keys off the table and headed out the door to pick up his next customer, who was not Ronan.

***********************************

Ronan’s heart was beating wildly in his chest. He closed the app quickly, not wanting to see if Adam was going to be his Uber driver. He sat on the curb outside on Monmouth and closed his eyes, letting his mind wander to his childhood home, The Barns. He didn’t know how long he had been sitting when he heard a car pull into the uneven lot. He sat another minute with his eyes closed regretting his decision. If it was Adam, did it even matter? And if it wasn’t Adam he was just going to be disappointed.

Ronan opened his eyes and the first thing he noticed was that the car was very nice, too nice to be Adam. Ronan’s heart sank. A boy got out of the car and walked over to where Ronan was sitting.

“Hey dude, did you order an Uber?”

Ronan glared at the boy.

The boy squirmed a little and glanced around the lot, eyes snagging on the BMW.

“Something wrong with your car?”

Ronan continued to glare at the boy. The boy continued to visibly grow more uncomfortable. 

After several more minutes Ronan finally addressed the boy.

“I changed my mind, I’m not going anywhere.”

The boys face grew agitated.

“Look man, I drove all the way out here to get you. I probably missed out on at least one more job to come here and wait for you to decide you don’t actually want an Uber. I’m not going anywhere until I get paid.”

Ronan stood up, towering over the boy and pulled out his wallet. He snatched some bills out and threw them at the boy. The boy just stood while the money fell to the ground. Ronan turned and stomped off back into Monmouth.

***********************************

Once Ronan was inside Monmouth he let out a string of curses. He was irritated at himself for getting his hopes up that somehow, magically Adam would have been the Uber driver randomly selected to be his driver, like it was destined or some shit. He immediately pulled out his phone and deleted the Uber app. He had been foolish to have kept the app as long as he did. As he was cursing himself a brief knock sounded from the front door. Ronan glared at the door, willing whoever was knocking to go away. It was probably the driver from earlier trying to convince Ronan to actually use his services. Another knock sounded, this time a little more stern. Ronan glared at the door again, this kid would not give up.

“Ronan! Are you in there?” A voice called from the other side of the door.

Ronan froze, his phone slipped from his hand and made a loud crashing sound on the floor. Briefly Ronan hoped that the fall had broken his phone, then he would have an excuse to not call Declan back. But that didn’t occupy his thoughts long.

“I know you are in there! I just heard a crashing noise! Get your ass out here and let’s go!”

Ronan must be dreaming. He must have fallen asleep somehow in the past few minutes and not realized it. There was no way this was actually happening. Ronan slowly walked to the door. He put his hand on the knob just as another knocking came, this time sounding more irritated than anything. He opened the door, and there standing in a threadbare coca-cola t-shirt was Adam Parrish.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam shows up as Ronan’s Uber driver again. Adam doesn’t know how to drive stick so Ronan teaches him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the love on the last few chapters. I hope you enjoy this chapter. I thought it was going to be a longer chapter, but I decided to break it up. The next chapter, however, will be longer. 
> 
> Again, I have no idea how Uber actually works so just pretend like everything is correct. Also, this is unedited.

Ronan couldn’t believe his eyes. In fact, he slammed the door shut and opened it again just to be sure he wasn’t hallucinating. When he reopened the door Adam was still there and giving him a very confused look.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Adam asked with a hint of humor in his voice.

Ronan blushed immediately realizing that he was not dreaming and he was acting rather strange.

“Shut up, Parrish. What are you doing here?” Ronan bit out. 

Adam raised an eyebrow at him.

“You ordered an Uber?” Adam said uncertainly, sounding more like a question.

Ronan just gaped at Adam. Was this really happening? How did Adam know he had ordered an Uber? Ronan wasn’t sure if he should question it or just go with it. He felt like this was his chance. After all, this was what he had hoped would happen. If he questioned it maybe Adam would just get in his car and drive away. No, he couldn’t waste the opportunity. 

“Uh, yeah.” Ronan replied, with a nervous laugh. Wow. He was really acting like a crazy person.

‘Okay, then. Well,” Adam said and gestured down towards the parking lot, “I’m parked out front so...”

“Oh hell no!” Ronan said a little too loudly.

Adam frowned at him, his eyebrows furrowing “Excuse me?”

“We are not taking your shit-mobile this time. We can take my BMW.” Ronan replied like it was obvious.

“If your car is working, why did you call an Uber?” Adam asked with a raised eyebrow.

Shit. Ronan hadn’t thought about that. 

“Oh, uh. Yeah. I, uh, I’ve had too much to drink and can’t drive my self.” Ronan stammered out, even though he hadn’t had a single drop of alcohol. Why was he lying? He hated lying.

Adam sighed heavily and turned to walk to the BMW. Ronan quickly followed, locking Monmouth behind him. When they got to the car Adam stood by the driver’s side door waiting. Ronan went around to the passenger side and waited too. Adam looked at him from across the top of the car with a small smirk on his face. 

Ronan felt a traitorous blush spread across his cheeks. Adam was even more beautiful than he remembered. The coca-cola shirt he was wearing looked good on him. The fabric was clinging in all the right places. His hair was slightly tousled from the wind, it was a little too long but it suited him. Adam cleared his throat and Ronan realized he had been staring. He quickly looked away and pulled on the door handle to get into the car to be met with resistance. Oh, right, the keys. 

Ronan fumbled in his pocket and produced the BMW’s keys and threw them over the hood to Adam. Adam, to his credit, didn’t seem surprised to have the keys thrown at him and caught them with ease. They both climbed into the BMW and shut the doors, Ronan slamming his a little harder than strictly necessary. 

As Ronan was buckling his seatbelt he heard a soft “oh” from Adam. He glanced up at Adam and saw his looking at the manual stick shift. 

“Are you fucking serious, Parrish? You’re a mechanic and can’t drive a stick shift?” Ronan laughed.

“For your information...wait, how did you know I was a mechanic?” Adam was giving Ronan a confused look.

“Oh, uh,” Shit, Ronan had let on that he was paying close attention to Adam the last time they had been together, “you mentioned it last time you drove me.”

Adam eyes grew large. He was looking at Ronan like he couldn’t believe that he remembered a throw away comment, when is fact nothing Adam said was a throw away comment to Ronan. 

“I remember mentioning it. But it was so brief and I didn’t blatantly say I was a mechanic, I just alluded to it. I didn’t think you had caught it. You didn’t say anything before.” Adam stammered, clearly thrown off by someone paying enough attention to him to remember.

“Fuck, Parrish. You’re acting like it’s some big secret. I just remembered you mentioning it. That’s all. Now. I’m gonna teach you drive this baby.” Ronan said with an excited glint in his eye as he patted the stick shift.

***************************

Adam felt exposed. He wasn’t used to feeling known, feeling like someone paid attention. He had been sure that Ronan wouldn’t remember him after the first job, let alone remember a comment he had made in passing. He felt butterflies flutter in his stomach and his heart accelerate. He needed to get under control. 

Ronan was a surprisingly good teacher. After just a few laps around the Monmouth parking lot Adam felt comfortable enough that he wasn’t going to completely flood the engine. He still wasn’t 100% comfortable with driving someone else’s car for a job, but he knew fighting Ronan on this wasn’t going to do anything. And if he was being honest with himself, he liked the way Ronan’s hungry eyes watched him as he switch gears and drove the BMW. 

A few times he purposefully missed a shift just so Ronan’s hand would come over his on the gear shift to help make the shift correctly. He couldn’t tell if Ronan knew that he was doing it on purpose or not, if he did, he didn’t mention it or act like he knew. 

After successfully driving around the block a couple of times with no incidents Adam peeked over at Ronan. Ronan looked so comfortable in the BMW. He had the window rolled down and his arm out the window, trailing in the wind. Adam got the sneaking suspicion that Ronan was not drunk and had not been the entire time, but he wasn’t sure if that was just him getting his hopes up that Ronan would make up some crazy excuse just to see him again. 

Adam pulled the BMW back into Monmouth and parked. He looked over at Ronan, who was already looking at him.

“Where to?” Adam asked, hoping Ronan stil wanted to go somewhere besides around the parking lot.

Ronan gave him an electric smile.

“Just keep driving north. I’ll tell you when to stop.”

Adam didn’t like not knowing their destination and how far they would be going, but strangely he trusted Ronan. Adam started the car and began to drive north.


End file.
